Friday, May 29, 2015

Hello and welcome everyone. It's Jenny here, it's Friday and it's time for a brand new Friday Focus! This our opportunity to take turns at finding out more about using a specific product or range currently available in The Funkie Junkie Boutique. And even better news, that product then has an extra 15% discount added for the next two weeks!

In the spotlight this time are Wendy Vecchi Embossing Powders; I love these powders because they are available in such bright colours, and that makes them perfect for this 'painting' technique. Hold on to your hats people, this is as close as I get to doing CAS!!!

Start by adding FlitterGlu to with a spatula to a piece of Phat Foam (all of which comes in the FlitterGlu starter kit).

(click on any of the images for a closer look)

Next swipe uneven lines of FlitterGlu over a plain piece of card using the Phat Foam. Why choose FlitterGlu rather than embossing ink? It can be added exactly where you need it and, most importantly, it remains tacky permanently. That means there's no rush with the next steps.

Using a small spoon sprinkle lines of your first colour embossing powder across the areas you've added the glue to (these will become more visible as we go along). In this case I used Red Geranium, returning the excess powder to the pot by catching it on a piece of paper.

Repeat the process using two further colours (for this one I chose Cornflower Blue and Tree Branch). Finally fill in the gaps with the lightest colour (Sky Blue).

At this point you may have some straight edges or bits you want to alter so go in with your finger and gently remove any excess powder. This may mix the colours a little on the paper underneath your card but that's good. Now heat set the embossing powder with a heat gun, and here's a hint - if your background warps at this point try misting a little water on the back of the card and putting it under some heavy books for a while to flatten it.

Put the mixed powder into a container, adding extra powder from each of the chosen colours to create your own custom colour. This is a trick Wendy Vecchi does to great effect and you can even get spare empty pots to save them in. For this project I was careful only to use the amount needed for the die cut butterfly.

Cover the butterfly (from Tim Holtz' duo set) in FlitterGlu using the same piece of Phat Foam.

Cover the butterfly in the mixed embossing powder and again, set it with your heat gun, allowing the melted powder mix to cool completely before moving on to the next step.

Run your embossed butterfly through the coordinating embossing folder, then rub a Red Geranium Archival Ink pad over the raised areas.

Setting the butterfly aside, return to your embossed background and apply white embossing paste through a stencil over part of the design.

I enjoyed making this first card so much I made a second! This time I used Orange Blossom, Fern Green, Buttercup and Tea Rose embossing powders. The highlighting on the butterfly was done with Orange Blossom Archival Ink and the sentiment coloured with Tea Rose Archival Ink.

Here are more close ups...

Gosh, this took longer to explain that to create! I hope you've enjoyed this tutorial and feel inspired to try your hand 'painting' with your embossing powders. Personally I can't wait to have a go again with the latest colours, Tiger Lily, Pink Peony and Violet!!

Remember, these wonderful Wendy Vecchi embossing powders have an extra 15% discount applied for the next two weeks at The Funkie Junkie Boutique so it makes sense to stock up now.

For now I hope you have a wonderful weekend and, whatever you're up to, take care of yourselves.

Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Hi there!! Georgie here with you today to host the second week of our next challenge. When I first started here I was so excited and very happy, and then when asked to choose a challenge theme, the one thing that sang out to me was:

Happy, Happy, HAPPY!!!

So this is the theme :) This could be a project you love doing, a product you love using, or something that makes you so happy that it just gives you the inspiration to create something beautiful. It really is an anything goes kind of challenge, but remember to make sure you have fun!!

The winner will earn the chance of a Guest DT spot here at Frilly and Funkie, and everyone who enters and follows the rules will be entered into the draw to have the chance to win a $25 spending spree at The Funkie Junkie Boutique.

The guidelines for entering are simple: create a new vintage or shabby chic project following the challenge theme, link it below to your post (not just your blog) and also include a link back to this challenge in your post. You can combine our challenge with up to 10 challenges (including this one) to be in with a chance of winning. Make sure you follow these rules as unfortunately we have had to eliminate entrants from the prize draws in the past when they have entered too many other challenges. If you are entering through a public forum please use keyword F&F. Also, please be sure to turn off your Word Verification so our Design Team can leave comments on your blogs.

And now it's the turn of my fabulous Funkie teamies to share their amazing creations;

Monday, May 25, 2015

Welcome to the beginning of a new week, and for those in the US and UK we hope you're enjoying an extended weekend! It's time to announce the winners of the 'Snap, Crackle, Crackle!' challenge. Thank you to every one who took the time to enter with some amazing crackled creations. It was great to see so many of you joining in the fun. The Design Team really enjoyed looking at how everyone had incorporated the theme into their projects and it was hard to pick just one winner, but in the end we voted for #21 Shrinking Mimsy.

We loved the use of crackle on this tray, complimenting the beautiful flowers to transform a thrift shop find. Find out more about how it came together and see some close up photos on Elizabeth's blog. Congratulations Elizabeth (Shrinking Mimsy) on being our favourite for the 'Snap, Crackle, Crackle!' challenge and winning the opportunity to be a Guest Designer here at Frilly and Funkie for a future challenge.

A huge thanks from the Frilly and Funkie team to everyone who took part in this challenge and congratulations again to our winners. Please email Linda at thefunkiejunkie@gmail.com for the codes for the winner's badge and to give us your email address for the Guest Designer details (Elizabeth) and for the gift certificate details (Carol).

Our current challenge, 'Happy, Happy, HAPPY!', runs through Tuesday, June 2nd and the Funkie side of the DesignTeam will be back this Wednesday, 27th May to share what makes them happy.

We hope to see you entering this time around so that you too can be in with a chance to win. And please make sure you follow our rules; you can enter up to 10 challenges including ours, and a maximum of 3 entries per person to our challenge. Please remember to link back to our challenge in your entry and mention in your post that you are entering this Frilly and Funkie challenge.

Saturday, May 23, 2015

Well, who doesn't love Crackle! Why not crackle glass! Oh the possibilities! Welcome to this Frilly and Funkie Saturday Step X Step. I'll show you how I crackle glass perfect for your projects or paper crafts and while it dries we'll watercolor and bend metal! Now that I have you thinking...let's crackle!

I shared this project a couple weeks ago here and I wanted to show you how I managed this technique.

I started with an old jar and glue. You can also use Ranger's Glue n' Seal.

Cover the jar with an even coat of glue.

I left the flat circle alone so you can see a peek window,

While that dries it's a good time to watercolor the Perspective Butterfly.

I started with Mermaid Lagoon! Do you have yours yet?

Add the cracked pistachio, mustard seed and abandon coral.

Look...it's drying! You want to see this mat look.

To get a more bold look you can use your distress markers to accent and make that color pop!

You can see here how I'm accenting to get that more intense color!

Now that the glass is dry add a coat of Distress Crackle Paint! Once the crackle is done drying you can add all your embellishments.

While you wait for the crackle to dry it's a good time to do some fussy cutting.

Ink the edges.

I put a coat of Clear Rock Candy Stickles on the butterflies.

I wanted to add a wordband to the lid so this is where we get to bend it!

Use your crafty pliers and bend a little bit at a time to achieve a nice even curve.

See, it takes no time to bend your wordband,

I used some linen ribbon to wrap the lid and attach some hot glue to help it stay put.

And there you have it! A pretty cracked project! While you wait you can work on some creative accents.

You can even crackle acetate or clear packaging for your paper crafting. How about a crackled glass jar full of creepy things for Halloween. Or crackling a frosty scene for a Holiday project. There's so many great ways to apply this!